Gupshup, a business messaging startup that began its journey in India over two decades ago and became a unicorn four years ago, has raised a new funding round exceeding $60 million. However, the company has chosen to keep its new valuation private.
In 2021, Gupshup raised two funding rounds within just four months, securing $340 million from prominent investors such as Tiger Global, Fidelity Management, Think Investments, and Malabar Investments. These rounds, which marked the startup’s first in nearly a decade, valued Gupshup at $1.4 billion. Despite this, Fidelity, which led the round following the unicorn milestone, reduced its internal valuation of the startup at least three times between 2023 and 2024, bringing it down to as low as $486 million.
The latest funding round, a combination of equity and debt financing from Globespan Capital Partners and EvolutionX Debt Capital, is intended to help the San Francisco-headquartered startup expand its footprint in several high-growth markets, including India, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa. While the startup has not disclosed the exact debt portion, its founder and CEO Beerud Seth mentioned that the equity part accounts for “a little more than half.”
Founded in 2004, Gupshup—named after the Indian slang for “conversations”—started as a platform to help businesses connect with customers through text messages. At a time when text messages were not free, the platform gained popularity among users seeking affordable ways to communicate with friends and community groups. As communication evolved from SMS to WhatsApp and Rich Communication Services (RCS), the company pivoted to these newer platforms by offering chatbot services. With the rise of AI and AI agents—software capable of performing specific tasks on behalf of users—Gupshup has begun enabling businesses to deploy these intelligent agents.
“There’s a lot of demand coming from enterprises. Everybody needs to build these AI agents, which work through messaging like RCS and WhatsApp or through voice. So, building out these agents, there’s huge demand, and we need to support it,” Seth explained.
Globally, AI agents are gaining significant traction, drawing strong investor interest in startups developing such technologies. Major tech companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are also exploring ways to bring AI agents to users through their platforms, ramping up the competition in this space.
Despite this intensifying competition, Gupshup does not view the situation as a threat. Seth attributes this confidence to the company’s substantial install base—exceeding 50,000 customers across more than 100 countries—and its strong track record of innovation fueled by years of experience in business messaging, strategic acquisitions, and internal research and development.
“Businesses cannot use simple foundation models off the shelf and just put them in front of customers. They need a lot of customization to be done, and that’s where Gupshup comes in. That’s what we provide,” he noted.
Since its last funding round in July 2021, Gupshup has tripled its revenue and grown its profitability; however, it is unclear whether this led to an increased valuation, as the latest round was not priced. “As a founder, you focus on value, and the valuation will follow,” Seth said when asked if he still considers the startup a unicorn. “We operate ourselves like we are going to be a big company.”
In addition to expanding geographically, Gupshup plans to use its fresh capital to enhance its product offerings, which serve industries including automotive, banking, e-commerce, fintech, media, payments, retail, and travel. Its product lineup also includes click-to-chat ads, an AI campaign copilot, agent assist services, and campaign management tools.
Gupshup processes over 120 billion messages annually for thousands of enterprises. Looking ahead, the company sees an initial public offering (IPO) as its next major milestone. “We’re talking to all our advisors, lawyers, bankers, accountants, and so on, to figure this out,” Seth said.
While the startup has no concrete timeline for going public, Seth mentioned that the IPO could occur within 18 to 24 months. The company is also considering listing on Indian stock exchanges—a strategic move given India’s dominance in the WhatsApp market. One advantage of listing in India is the ability to communicate its story more effectively to local retail investors, who are familiar with WhatsApp and understand how Gupshup’s products, including its AI agents, operate within the platform. However, because Gupshup is domiciled in the U.S., switching to an Indian listing would trigger tax liabilities, potentially requiring additional funding.
“The IPO is the one thing that we don’t control entirely. The calendar depends as much on external factors as it does on the company,” Seth concluded.